‘I seen her in Trinity Road one day,’ Nellie said, ‘and in Derby Park another day when I took Tommy but Letty wasn’t with her.’
‘No, she hardly ever goes out,’ Gertie said. ‘Mind you, I’m not complaining. They’re real good lodgers. Quiet and pleasant and regular with the rent.’
It was assumed that the mother, Mrs Gilligan, was a widow but Bella soon corrected Nellie when she spoke of the widow in Gertie’s house.
‘Widder woman me foot,’ Bella said. ‘She’s got a husband alive and well. Went off to live over the brush with a woman in Keats Street, then they went off to live somewhere near Spellow Lane. Mrs Gilligan’s supposed to be able to tell the future but she never foretold that. Him clearing off with the other one.’
Her huge bulk quivered like a jelly as she laughed and Nellie was sorry that she had been the cause of Mrs Gilligan’s secret being aired.
Nellie had become a great favourite with Bella and was often invited to sit beside her on her step. It was a mixed blessing, Nellie found.
It signalled that she was under Bella’s protection and warned off people, like Maud, but often Nellie was in a dilemma, wanting to get on with her work at home but unable to leave without offending Bella.
Nellie had little spare time now that her hours had been increased at the house in Balliol Road. One of the elderly maids, Jane, had collapsed and been taken to Bootle Hospital. Mrs Duncan had not taken on a temporary replacement for her although she still entertained as much as ever but expected Nellie to do the work in the few extra hours that she paid her for.
Often she was kept so late that Tommy had to be put to bed by Katy or Maggie, or kept up long past his bedtime, but Nellie made no complaint. She thought that by working extra hours she was safeguarding Jane’s job until she was ready to return but the cook and Mrs Taggart told her that she was mistaken.
‘I seen Jane last night,’ the cook said. ‘She’ll never be able to work no more and she was heartbroken. She hasn’t got no family so it’ll be the Kirkdale Homes for her, God help her.’
‘But won’t Mrs Duncan—?’ Nellie began but the two women laughed derisively.
‘Not her,’ Mrs Taggart said. ‘No, girl. She’s full of funny tricks but that’s not one of them.’
‘But in my first place I was taken on to help Gertrude because she was crippled with arthritis but she didn’t want to give up work. Then when Mr Ambrose and Miss Agatha died they left it in the will that Gertrude was to go in a nursing home.’
‘There’s not many like that, girl,’ the cook said. ‘Proper toffs. These lot are Johnny-come-latelys. Beggars on horseback. Don’t know how to behave.’
‘You let the missus know you can’t do everything and you can’t go working late on account of your little lad,’ Mrs Taggart said. ‘Tell them girls you can’t run after them and be parlourmaid as well.’
‘And kitchenmaid and assistant cook or whatever you’re supposed to be down here,’ the cook broke in. ‘And all for charwomen’s wages. Stand up to her, girl. She won’t sack you, no fear. Bragging to her posh pals as if she’s gorra big staff.’
Indignation on Jane’s behalf helped Nellie to ignore the bells ringing for her as they all worked frantically to prepare the dinner. She had taken off her kitchen apron and smoothed her hair and was taking a tray of silver into the dining room when one of the daughters stormed downstairs.
‘I’m going to complain to my mother,’ she said furiously, ‘My sister and I have been ringing for you for twenty minutes.’
‘I’m sorry, miss. I’ve only got one pair of hands,’ Nellie said and the girl stormed upstairs.
Even when Mrs Duncan sent for her Nellie stood her ground although she was quaking inwardly. Think about Jane, she told herself.
‘I’m very disappointed in you, Ellen,’ Mrs Duncan said severely. ‘Miss Alexandra tells me that you not only failed to answer her bell but you were impertinent when she spoke to you.’
‘I said I only had one pair of hands and it’s true, ma’am,’ Nellie said.
‘Jane’s illness has come at a most inconvenient time, Ellen, but we must all pull our weight in these circumstances. I’ve arranged for the charwoman to come back for an hour to help with the washing up and she can help cook. Agnes must help in the dining room and you must go immediately to assist my daughters with their hair and their clothes,’ Mrs Duncan said.
She turned away as though the matter was closed but Nellie said in a quavering voice, ‘I’m willing to do my best until Jane comes back.’
She hoped that the cook had misunderstood and Mrs Duncan would tell her that Jane’s job was safe but she only said graciously, ‘We’ll say no more about it. Go to Miss Lydia and Miss Alexandra at once.’
Nellie went to the kitchen and repeated what had been said before she went to the bedroom shared by the daughters. No money spared on these two, she thought, looking round the luxurious room, yet poor Jane!
‘Ow, you’re hurting me,’ Lydia yelled as Nellie dragged the brush through her hair.
‘Sorry, miss,’ Nellie said indifferently. She was determined not to hurry as she usually did or to be tactful about dividing her time equally between the quarrelsome sisters. Soon Alexandra was complaining that Nellie was spending too much time on her sister and too little on her.
‘I’m not going to be ready in time,’ she stormed. ‘Do my hair at once.’
Nellie laid down the brush and Lydia thrust it back into her hand, screaming at her sister.
By the time that Nellie went downstairs both girls had shed tears of temper and were not speaking to each other.
‘Common as muck, the pair of them,’ the cook said. ‘You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, girl.’
‘It was Alexandra clatted on me to her mother,’ Nellie said. ‘I made sure her hair looked a mess at the back.’
‘You’re learning, Nell,’ the cook said approvingly. ‘The missus has kept out of the way tonight but she’ll have to see me tomorrow. She’s got another dinner party planned for Saturday and I’m going to have it out with her. Tell her straight.’
‘If I could get another place cleaning I’d leave,’ Nellie said. ‘But they’re few and far between, aren’t they?’ She sighed. ‘I can’t go on like this though. Not being there for Tommy when he comes home. I thought I’d fallen on me feet with five mornings’ cleaning.’
As she spoke she was rapidly preparing devils on horseback savouries, then putting the finishing touches to an apple charlotte.
‘I won’t half miss you if you go,’ the cook said, ‘but I don’t blame you. You’ve been put on long enough here. Why don’t you try for a cook’s job?’
Nellie shook her head. ‘No, I couldn’t live in and anyway I’m all right helping but I’d be no good on me own.’
‘You don’t know what you can do till you try. You want to think a bit more of yourself, girl,’ the cook said.
By the time the dinner party was over they were all exhausted and Nellie hesitated, looking at the mountain of washing up. ‘I feel mean going off and leaving this,’ she said but Mrs Taggart told her to go.
‘Don’t you worry, girl,’ she said, ‘I won’t break me back over it. I’ll take me time and I’ll make sure she pays me for every minute I’m here. When I think of that poor dear laying in the workhouse!’
Tommy was still awake when Nellie reached home, anxious to show her a tooth that had come out, and he clung to his mother. ‘I thought you was never coming, Mam,’ he said, and Nellie was even more determined to change her job as soon as possible.
Before she found another job some changes at the Duncan house made her decide to stay there. A girl came from an orphanage to train as parlourmaid and Nellie was free to spend more time in the kitchen. Both of the daughters had their hair bobbed and were told by their mother that they must help each other and not call on Nellie.
Nellie had made it clear that she was unable to stay on in the evening except for special occasions, and as she foun
d later the cook had threatened to leave unless she had help from Nellie with the elaborate menus planned by Mrs Duncan. Although gradually Nellie slipped back to working wherever she was needed in the house she stayed on. Always she dreaded change and preferred to be in a familiar place.
Summer was nearly over and Bobby had still not brought Meg to see Nellie but instead Nellie and Tommy had been invited to the Handleys’ cottage. She dressed Tommy carefully and wore her blue coat and a matching felt hat.
‘You don’t half look smart, Nell,’ Bobby exclaimed when she stepped off the train, holding Tommy’s hand. Meg was with Bobby and he explained that she too had been invited to tea.
Meg was a thin girl with dark eyes and dark curly hair and a friendly manner. Nellie liked her immediately. They walked from the station and Tommy was enchanted by the wildflowers which grew beside the lane and the birds which hopped fearlessly in the hedgerows.
‘This air is lovely,’ Nellie said. ‘Breathe in, Tommy lad.’
As they walked along Meg told her that she was an only child and her mother had died when Meg was seven years old. ‘There’s only me and me dad now,’ she said. ‘He works in flour mill.’
They were all warmly welcomed by Mr and Mrs Handley and Nellie and Meg were sent to lay their coats on Bobby’s bed and tidy themselves. Nellie looked round the room at the rose-patterned wallpaper and the big soft bed covered by a white quilt. There was an old-fashioned chest of drawers and a clothes cupboard and the air scented with new-mown hay flowed through the open window.
Nellie sat down on a cane chair. ‘Eh Meg, no wonder our Bob thought he was in heaven when he come here,’ she said. ‘We miss him, me and Tommy, but I hope he doesn’t never get sent back to Liverpool to work.’
‘The Handleys think the world of him and so does me dad,’ Meg said. ‘He’s a Liverpool man himself.’
‘Your dad is?’ Nellie said in surprise and Meg explained that her father had been stationed near Sudely during the war and decided to move there from Liverpool.
There was much laughter as they all squeezed round the table in the parlour of the cottage. ‘Good thing as lasses are thin and the little lad too,’ Mr Handley said.
‘Eh, if they favoured me and thee, dad, we’d not fit,’ Mrs Handley said.
Tommy was silent with amazement at the amount of food provided. The big York ham which Mr Handley carved to supplement the chicken already on their plates, the crisp salad and whole hard-boiled eggs, the plate tarts filled with damsons, gooseberries and apples and the parkin and fruit cake.
‘Eh, tha mun eat up, lad,’ Mrs Handley said jovially. ‘Tha’ll not match thy uncle else.’
‘No wonder our Bob’s grown so big and healthy,’ Nellie said to Mrs Handley, as Bobby passed up his plate for yet more ham and the old lady looked at him fondly.
‘I do like to see a lad relish his food,’ she said, ‘he’s a real good lad, is Bob.’
Nellie wondered why she was not taken to see Meg’s father but it was only when Meg and Bob were seeing them off at the station that Bob said, ‘Next time you’ll have to meet Meg’s dad, Nell. It was better to spend all the time with the Handleys today.’
Meg blushed and looked tearful but Nellie pretended to notice nothing and only said, ‘That’ll be nice. Oh, it’s been a lovely day, Bob. I’m made up you’re so comfortable here. The Handleys are lovely.’ She kissed Meg warmly and invited her to come to Liverpool with Bob any time but she felt sure that there was some reason why she had not met Meg’s father.
Mrs Handley had given Nellie a straw bag before they left and as soon as the train started to move she and Tommy unpacked it excitedly.
As well as the pasties there was a cold cooked chicken wrapped in a cloth, a dozen fresh eggs in a box filled with sawdust, some ham wrapped in muslin, a large piece of parkin and a jar of bottled damsons. There was also a crusty loaf and a bowl of yellow butter.
‘That’s because I said I liked the bread and butter best of all,’ Tommy said, jumping about with excitement. ‘Oh, I wish my dad was home, Mam.’
‘So do I, lad,’ Nellie said. ‘He wouldn’t half enjoy this stuff. I’m going to hide some of it from Janey, Tom. It’d be wasted on her.’
Nellie boiled three of the eggs for breakfast the following morning but she waited until Janey had eaten her egg and left before she produced the home-made bread and butter. ‘I’m not being sly, lad,’ she told Tommy. ‘She wouldn’t understand that Mrs Handley meant the bread and butter for you.’
‘And it’d be wasted on Janey,’ Tommy said and joined in when Nellie laughed heartily. The bread and butter was the only part of the gift that Nellie kept entirely for Tom and herself. Gertie was delighted with a couple of fresh eggs and a piece of parkin and the chicken and ham was shared between Nellie, Maggie and Katy. Maggie and Katy also had two eggs each and some parkin and the chicken legs were reserved for Peter Rimmer.
Katy had confided to Nellie the previous week that she was worried about Peter. ‘He doesn’t seem to be picking up his strength,’ she said. ‘You know, if I could get better food for him I’m sure he’d get better. Just when you need it most it’s hardest to get it though.’
‘I know,’ Nellie said. ‘Your mam was telling us about poor Mrs Burgess at the top end. Three of her girls have got TB and some new doctor at the dispensary told her they need cream and eggs and meat. How does he think she can get them when she’s on the Parish? Like your mam said, he only made it worse for the poor woman.’
‘I suppose I shouldn’t be moaning,’ Katy said. ‘At least I’ve got me mam and the family to help out, although they’re all struggling themselves. And Peter doesn’t need the food to save his life, like, but some good grub would make all the difference in the world for him. I wish I could win the Irish Sweep.’
‘Have you ever had a ticket?’ Nellie asked and when Katy shook her head she said, ‘Neither have I, so I don’t think we’ve got much chance.’
Remembering that conversation now, Nellie was doubly pleased to be able to help her friend.
‘Honest to God, Nell, it was great to see Peter mucking in to them chicken legs,’ Katy said. ‘He’s been real down in the dumps but the treat really bucked him up. I done the eggs for him too to build him up, like.’
Nellie had again boiled three eggs for breakfast on the second morning and she and Tommy had enjoyed their eggs but Janey said sourly that hers tasted no different to a shop egg. Nellie decided that she need feel no qualms about leaving Janey out of the largesse. It was true that good food was wasted on the old woman.
Chapter Thirteen
Tommy was seven years old in November and Nellie decided that her visit to Dr Wilson could not be put off any longer. She felt that it was unfair to Tommy to neglect any chance of providing a brother or sister for him and also she longed for another child.
She had seen Dr Wilson in the area but she had never visited him as a patient and she trembled with nervousness when she was admitted to the surgery and tried to explain her errand. He soon put her at ease by talking about her father and telling her that Tommy resembled him.
‘I didn’t know you knew me dad, Doctor,’ Nellie said. ‘He wasn’t home that much.’
The doctor smiled at her. ‘He came to me to arrange something for you when you were thirteen, Nellie. We fixed up for you to go to Agatha and Ambrose D’Arcy because they were old friends of mine. You were happy there, I think.’
‘Oh yes, Doctor,’ Nellie said fervently. ‘They were so good to me. Miss Agatha learned me to sew and Mr Ambrose learned me to read and write. I was brokenhearted when they died.’
‘Yes, it was very sad. Now tell me why you are here, Nellie,’ Dr Wilson said.
Nellie explained and the doctor asked her numerous questions and then examined her, talking about Tommy as he did so so that she was not embarrassed. After she dressed he told her that she had nothing to worry about.
‘Nurse said my womb might be tilted because I was in labour so long with Tom
my,’ Nellie said timidly.
‘So that’s what you’ve been worrying about?’ Dr Wilson said. ‘You’re all right, Nellie. Nothing to affect your health. Just be thankful you’ve been spared having hordes of children to make you old before your time.’
He smiled at her and Nellie said, ‘But why, Doctor? Me and Sam—’
She stopped, too embarrassed to go on, but the doctor said heartily, ‘Nothing to stop you and Sam having normal relations, Nellie.’
‘But another baby. For Tommy’s sake. Company, like,’ Nellie stammered.
‘No, he’ll do much better as an only one,’ the doctor said decidedly. ‘Far too many children born in this neighbourhood already and every fresh mouth to feed means less for the others. Sam’s proved himself. You’ve got one child so be satisfied, Nellie.’
He came round his desk and ushered Nellie to the door. ‘You’ve got nothing to worry about. You’re a healthy girl,’ he said before calling for his next patient. Nellie paid her one and sixpence before being shown out of the side door of the house and walked away, thinking that she had made a mess of the interview.
Going through all that and the money and all and I’m no wiser, she thought. He didn’t know what I was on about. Thought I was worrying about what Nurse told me. The thought of the nurse made her decide to visit Nurse McCann again while she was respectably dressed in her coat and her best hat. She bought a bunch of flowers but when she arrived at the house she was told that the nurse was too ill for visitors, so could only leave a message and the flowers.
For the rest of the day Nellie was too busy to think about her visit to the surgery but when she lay in bed at night she went over the doctor’s words in her mind. He’s got a bee in his bonnet about big families, she thought. That’s why he thinks it’s better for Tom to be an only one.
She recalled the doctor’s words that she and Sam could have normal relations, feeling hot with embarrassment yet thinking scornfully that she and Sam didn’t need telling that. Dr Wilson’s very nice, she thought, but them sort of people just don’t understand us. Saying Sam had proved himself, as though that was the way people like us talk. He wouldn’t say that about his own posh friends.
A Wise Child Page 18